Bellingham’s Brightest: A Death Cab for Cutie Mix

“…this is fact not fiction for the first time in years.” – ben gibbard

In anticipation of this evening’s Death Cab For Cutie concert at the Chicago Theatre, I decided to put together a medley of my favorite songs produced by the band over their decade plus recording career.

Although over the years many of their original fans have fallen by the wayside because the band has moved towards an arguably more mainstream pop sound, I still find myself reveling in their music old and new. Admittedly, I do not think anything will ever capture the intimacy and the brilliantly layered lo-fi musical landscape of the first four records (see “Transatlanticism” which best encapsulates this style), Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla, and company can still write poignant and eye-watering pop-songs better than most song writers. While the lo-fi buzz and hum of the early records has disappeared, the band has moved towards creating gorgeously orchestrated, almost symphonic indie-pop chamber pieces.

By this stage, I assume most folks are familiar with Death Cab (after all they were featured in the Twilight soundtrack) and I need not enter into an extensive history of the band. However, I will encourage everyone to visit or revisit the first three records if they haven’t recently because taken as a whole they are little gems. Check Out:

(1) the title of this post references the fact that DCFC is from Bellingham, Washington (which for sports fans is also the home of Ted Williams) and

(2) the origin of the name (because many have asked in the past) is as follows: “Gibbard took the band name from the title of the song written by Neil Innes and Vivian Stanshall and performed by their group, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, in The Beatles’ 1967 film, Magical Mystery Tour.” from Wikipedia so it must be true, right?).

LISTEN TO THIS!!! Before I go, I highly encourage folks to check out this week’s NPR All Songs Considered Podcast featuring awesome new material from Hot Chip, Japandroids, and Bobby Womack (you might remember him from the Gorillaz “Styllo“). (In case you listen to just the tracks, I am particularly fond of Sarah Jaffe’s “Glorified High”)).